Latest posts
- Time to Move On – The Reason Relationships EndFeb 24, 2026steve blank
What Lies Ahead I have no Way of Knowing, But It’s Now Time to Get Going Tom Petty This post previously appeared in Philanthropy.org A while ago I wrote about what happens in a startup when a new event creates a wake-up call that makes founding engineers reevaluate their jobs. (It’s worth a read here.) […]
- You Only Think They Work For YouFeb 18, 2026steve blank
When I was a new VP of Marketing I got a painful lesson of who my PR (Public Relations) agency actually worked for. Later I realized that it was true for all of my external vendors. And much later I realized what I really should have been asking them to do. The lessons still apply […]
- Revisionist History – Aliens, Secrets and ConspiraciesFeb 10, 2026steve blank
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” John 8:32 Every once in a while you learn something new that makes you completely rethink how/why an event actually happened. And then you consider how it affects the rest of our country and our lives. This is one of those stories. […]
- Making the Wrong Things Go Faster at The Department of WarFeb 03, 2026steve blank
This article previously appeared in Defense Scoop The Department of War (DoW) senior Acquisition leadership (the people who decide what and how the DoW buys equipment and services) now is headed by people from private capital (venture capital and private equity.) Deputy Secretary of War Steven Feinberg ran Cerebus Capital Secretary of the Army Daniel […]
- The Department of War DirectoryDec 16, 2025steve blank
TL;DR DoW Directory revision 3 is Online here, Order a print copy here. In November 2025 the Department of War (DoW) unveiled the biggest changes in 60 years of how they will buy weapons and services. This month Congress, with bipartisan support, rapidly made them into law in the National Defense Authorization Act (the […]
- The Department of War Just Shot the Accountants and Opted for SpeedNov 11, 2025steve blank
Last week the Department of War finally killed the last vestiges of Robert McNamara’s 1962 Planning, Programming, and Budgeting System (PPBS). The DoW has pivoted from optimizing cost and performance to delivering advanced weapons at speed. Taking decades to deliver weapons is no longer an option. The DoW has joined the 21st century and adopted […]
- It only took 20 years, but the Strategic Management Society now Believes the Lean Startup is a StrategyOct 30, 2025steve blank
I’ve always thought of myself as a practitioner. In the startups I was part of, the only “strategy” were my marketing tactics on how to make the VP of Sales the richest person in the company. After I retired, I created Customer Development and co-created the Lean Startup as a simple methodology which codified founders […]
- How to Sell to the Dept of War – The 2025 PEO Directory – Now with 500 more namesOct 15, 2025steve blank
The October 2025 PEO Directory – Update 2. The Department of War (DoW) is one of the world’s largest organizations. If you’re a startup trying to figure out who to call on and how to navigate the system, it can be – to put it politely – challenging.Those inside the DoW have little perspective of […]
- No Science, No Startups: The Innovation Engine We’re Switching OffOct 13, 2025steve blank
Tons of words have been written about the Trump Administrations war on Science in Universities. But few people have asked what, exactly, is science? How does it work? Who are the scientists? What do they do? And more importantly, why should anyone (outside of universities) care? (Unfortunately, you won’t see answers to these questions in […]
- When Sh!t Hits the Fan – Founders in a CrisisSep 17, 2025steve blank
Great founders shine in a crisis. Ordinary ones watch their companies burn down. I just had coffee with two co-founders of an e-bike company who were mentoring one of our student teams. In short order I realized they were great founders – creative, agile and still having fun building their company. Unlike other e-bike rental […]
- How To Sell to the Dept of War – The 2025 PEO DirectorySep 10, 2025steve blank
Announcing the 2025 edition of the DoW PEO Directory. Online here. Think of this PEO Directory as a “Who buys in the government?” phone book. Finding a customer for your product in the Department of War is hard: Who should you talk to? How do you get their attention? What is the right Go-To-Market Strategy? […]
- Blind to Disruption – The CEOs Who Missed the FutureJul 08, 2025steve blank
How did you go bankrupt?” Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.” Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises Every disruptive technology since the fire and the wheel have forced leaders to adapt or die. This post tells the story of what happened when 4,000 companies faced a disruptive technology and why only one survived. In the early 20th […]
- Why Investors Don’t Care About Your BusinessJul 01, 2025steve blank
Founders with great businesses are often frustrated that they can’t raise money. Here’s why. I’ve been having coffee with lots of frustrated founders (my students and others) bemoaning most VCs won’t even meet with them unless they have AI in their fundraising pitch. And the AI startups they see are getting valuations that appear nonsensical. […]
- Lean Launchpad at Stanford – 2025Jun 24, 2025steve blank
The PowerPoints embedded in this post are best viewed on steveblank.com We just finished the 15th<>annual Lean LaunchPad class at Stanford. The class had gotten so popular that in 2021 we started teaching it in both the winter and spring sessions. During the 2025 spring quarter the eight teams spoke to 935 potential customers, beneficiaries […]
- Hacking for Defense @ Stanford 2025 – Lessons Learned PresentationsJun 17, 2025steve blank
The videos and PowerPoints embedded in this post are best viewed on steveblank.com We just finished our 10th annual Hacking for Defense class at Stanford. What a year. Hacking for Defense, now in 70 universities, has teams of students working to understand and help solve national security problems. At Stanford this quarter the 8 teams […]
- Teaching National Security Policy with AIJun 10, 2025steve blank
The videos embedded in this post are best viewed on steveblank.com International Policy students will be spending their careers in an AI-enabled world. We wanted our students to be prepared for it. This is why we’ve adopted and integrated AI in our Stanford national security policy class – Technology, Innovation and Great Power Competition. Here’s […]
- How the United States Gave Up Being a Science SuperpowerMay 13, 2025steve blank
This article previously appeared in Nature. US global dominance in science was no accident, but a product of a far-seeing partnership between public and private sectors to boost innovation and economic growth. Since 20 January, US science has been upended by severe cutbacks from the administration of US President Donald Trump. A series of dramatic […]
- How the U.S. Became A Science SuperpowerApr 15, 2025steve blank
Prior to WWII the U.S was a distant second in science and engineering. By the time the war was over, U.S. science and engineering had blown past the British, and led the world for 85 years. It happened because two very different people were the science advisors to their nation’s leaders. Each had radically different […]
- Quantum Computing – An UpdateOct 22, 2024steve blank
In March 2022 I wrote a description of the Quantum Technology Ecosystem. I thought this would be a good time to check in on the progress of building a quantum computer and explain more of the basics. Just as a reminder, Quantum technologies are used in three very different and distinct markets: Quantum Computing, Quantum […]
- How Saboteurs Threaten Innovation–and What to Do About ItOct 08, 2024steve blank
This article first appeared in First Round Review. “Only the Paranoid Survive” Andy Grove – Intel CEO 1987-1998 I just had an urgent “can we meet today?” coffee with Rohan, an ex-student. His three-year-old startup had been slapped with a notice of patent infringement from a Fortune 500 company. “My lawyers said defending this suit could […]